


Photos of Friends

by Icie



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Abuse, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-18
Updated: 2014-09-18
Packaged: 2018-02-17 21:17:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2323466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icie/pseuds/Icie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iwaizumi photographed Oikawa for a month straight when they were sixteen and never really stopped.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Photos of Friends

From the middle of their second year in highschool, Hajime takes pictures.

Tooru outdid himself with his birthday present that year: a brand new iPhone, and he tore the the receipt clean down the middle while Hajime was distracted pulling off the five ribbons and three layers of wrapping paper and couldn't stop him. Hajime stomped down to the store and shouted at the store clerk to try and return it anyway but having the pieces of the receipt wasn't good enough and Tooru had ended the conversation by pointing out the line of twenty people stretching out behind them.

Hajime berated Tooru for it, once his head cooled down enough for rationality, brought up the very valid point that if something malfunctions he can't get it repaired. Tooru shrugged and told him he'd just buy him a new one if that happened.

A year and a half down the track and its button sticks, tape keeps the back cover on and Hajime insists every day that he likes having to wiggle the charge cable for a solid minute to force some power into it. But he takes photos every day. Of buildings that don't fit in with the ones next to them, flowers sprouting from a crack in the sidewalk and Tooru. He made it a challenge, at the start.

He had a month and ten days from receiving the phone to make it work. He succeeded - Tooru isn't the only one with a stubborn streak - and presented Tooru with a scrapbook on the twentieth of July, twenty pages of pictures of them together. He kept frills and cute stickers well away from it, but he's sure his spikes were less powerful the week after from the amount of glue he used to get it polished and make it worth calling a gift.

The older photos were easy to find, his mom keeps her favourite of them on their living room window ledge, right between him trying to crawl onto his mom's lap when he was five and his mom, dad and him at his first festival wearing a tiny yukata that his mom still has in the bottom of her drawers.

Newer photos proved difficult, for someone so vain Tooru manages to step out of more group shots than his ego should allow, but he cobbled them together. He printed two on glossy paper and set on the centre fold - the ones of them at their middle school graduation, tidied up nicely with Tooru smiling his grin that touches his eyes with coldness and the one taken after the award ceremony of their last middle school tournament, Tooru clutching his award with white knuckles and smiling ear to ear, eyes puffy but truly happy, the first picture where he was and Hajime with his arm around his shoulders pulling him to look at the camera, smiling just as hard.

From then on there weren't any to find of the two of them together. All the photos of Tooru from high school and that summer were for the yearbook or showed nothing of who he is. A completely fake mask placed carefully on his face whenever a camera showed up near by.

Which why his photo habit started.

The rest of the book is selfies of the two of them and candid shots of Tooru when he isn't pretending to be anything for anyone, all taken off Hajime's shiny new iPhone. Three photos with fingers covering half the image that he debated on up until the night before Tooru's birthday but, in the end, anything without that vile fake smile earned its place.

Tooru kept the finished book on top of his dresser, near the door. Kept it there for anyone who wormed their way into the room to see for well over a year, right up until now.

A bruise blooms from Tooru's cheekbone and over to the corner of his eyes which are trying to pretend, just like the rest of him, that everything is okay.

"It's okay, Iwa-chan, I'll take it back when we finish high school." A tremor passes through Tooru's outstretched hands so his scrapbook wobbles. "That's soon and we're going to be so busy with exams that-"

"Stop," Hajime says to cut into whatever utter bullshit was about to come out of Tooru's mouth next. His voice sounds cold to his own ears. "He hit you?"

"You hit me harder, Iwa-chan."

"That's not a no."

Tooru's smile softens into something real and awful. A farce of happiness that builds off his utter misery. "I'm a disappointment and you're a distraction, Iwa-chan." Tooru's thumbnails shine white where his thumbs press onto his scrapbook, the cover isn't high quality, he'll leave dents. "You were the reason I lost." Try as he might - try as Hajime might, too - Tooru always believes his parents on some level.

Hajime slides Tooru's book out of his hands, he tucks it out of the way, between his favourite book and a battered collection of fairytales as Tooru forces all of his body language into _I'm fine, nothing to see here apart from beauty_. " _We_ lost. Our whole team." Hajime jams a finger into the darkest spot of Tooru's bruise on the jut of his cheek.

He expected Tooru to jerk back, start up a cry of how mean he is, how he's only proving his point, but his hand flies up and catches Hajime's wrist, jerks him forward and pulls him into a bearhug.

Five centimetres of height difference creates an imbalance every time Tooru does this. Even with his head tucked down and his nose pressed into the curve of Hajime's neck, he envelops Hajime, makes him feel small, probably always will. Tooru still has his fingers wrapped around Hajime's wrist but his other hand is free and Hajime reaches it up to brush it through Tooru's frustratingly soft hair. "This won't last forever, Tooru," Hajime murmurs and tries to find some more words that are actually kind rather than abrasive and designed to get Tooru's head out of his ass. "College is soon."

"Tell me not to hurt them, tell me not to destroy their lives," Tooru says like all his exhaustion from playing in the tournament and then from living through losing the tournament finally caught up.

Long time ago, when Hajime didn't know just how bad Tooru's parents are, Tooru said the same thing and Hajime poked fun by asking him how he would do it. And Tooru had told him. He outlined a plan to push his parents into financial trouble and remove all safety nets, then pull the plug. That time, and all times since, Hajime has replied the same way and he does again. Hopes this time will be the last. "You're not the same as them, so don't."

"What a responsible adult," Tooru says and adjusts their hug so his lips press to Hajime's collarbone. Hajime's stomach sinks.

"Don't use me as a distraction, asshole," he says and glares at the parts of Tooru he can see.

"But you're such a pretty one," Tooru replies and all of his regular happy mask is back in place like none of their previous conversation even happened.

"Then take a photo with me."

Oikawa stops moving his hands lower on Hajime's back, mind no doubt racing to the bruise spread across his skin. "You don't want this picture, Iwa-chan."

"I want every picture."

**Author's Note:**

> i sure am stuck on other things i'm writing so i knocked this out real quick since i've been talking about iwaoi most of the day. quick means barely checked so please hit me up in the comments or on [my tumblr](http://vilechill.tumblr.com/ask) for any mistakes (or as always just a chat)
> 
> oikawa's parents are shits but there are only a handful of times they actually hit him, this time was because oikawa threw in their faces that he has more pictures of him with iwaizumi than of them as a family
> 
> after that, oikawa teased iwaizumi incessantly for being a sap in between bugging him for makeouts.  
> (makeouts were given but he refused to admit he's a sap)


End file.
